Aaron Sorkin’s ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ Tells Tale of Historic Protest

With the election approaching and protests breaking out across America, Netflix has dropped the trailer for The Trial of the Chicago 7, out October 16th on the streaming platform.

The film, directed by Aaron Sorkin, details an anti-war protest, counter-culture at the 1968 Democratic National Convention that turned violent when the police and the National Guard stepped in. The organizers — who included Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Tom Hayden and Bobby Seale — were charged with conspiracy to incite a riot, and what followed was one of the most bizarre trials in U.S. history.

Arlo Guthrie — who appeared at the trial on the side of the defense — recently reflected on the incident to Rolling Stone: “It seemed as if there was [an anti-war] groundswell that came from the bottom up. And that didn’t suit the business people or the politicians. They were looking to find out who was responsible for this. Who’s responsible for all these protesters? So they invented leaders so that they could target the demonstrators.”

“I decided to show up and help make the point that I was sympathetic to [the defendants], even though I disagreed with how they were going about it,” he added. “The trial was trying to show that these guys were the bad guys, and that didn’t make any sense to me.”

The upcoming films stars Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Sacha Baron Cohen, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Keaton, Frank Langella, John Carroll Lynch, Eddie Redmayne, Mark Rylance, Alex Sharp, Jeremy Strong, Noah Robbins, Danny Flaherty, Ben Shenkman, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Caitlin Fitzgerald, Alice Kremelberg, John Doman, J.C. MacKenzie, Damien Young, Wayne Duvall and C.J. Wilson.